The Success of SHERLOCK HOLMES Ensures Audiences Will Take Another Trip to TREASURE ISLAND

Amidst all the Avatar hoopla, Guy Ritchie’s fresh take on Sherlock Holmes has quietly tallied more than $460 million worldwide: hence, the sequel. But it looks like Hollywood is looking to expand the influence outside the franchise. Last week, we reported that Sherlock producer Lionel Wigram wants to update The Three Musketeers in a similar manner and today, Empire informs us that Ecosse Films is looking to make a Treasure Island for the new generation, influenced by the irreverent, non-traditional style of Sherlock. Details after the jump.

Ecosse is a relatively green British production studio, whose catalogue consists mostly of specialty films like Becoming Jane and Brideshead Revisited. Their upcoming Nowhere Boy, a portrait of a young John Lennon starring Aaron Johnson of Kick-Ass, may have star and subject matter buzzworthy enough to give the company a modest stateside hit, but so far nothing they’ve produced would match the likely scale of this proposed Treasure Island.

Beyond making the pirate tale “cooler and sexier”, the reboot would reportedly turn Treasure Island into a mostly two-man story–that of sinister scallywag Long John Silver and young protagonist Jim Hawkins–in hopes of attracting big names to the starring roles. Considering that Sherlock in many ways owes a debt to the cultural phenomenon that is the Pirates of the Caribbean series, don’t be too surprised if a hipper Long John Silver borrows some eyeliner from the Jack Sparrow’s collection.

For me, the quintessential cinematic take on Treasure Island will always be, naturally, Muppet Treasure Island; any other retelling is extraneous. Will this attempt include Tim Curry singing about the highs and lows of being a professional pirate (clip below)? No? Then don’t even bother.

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